In modern football, local heroes are becoming an increasingly rare sight. Yet, back in the 1979/80 season, Grimsby Town did exactly that. Five players who grew up in the town and its immediate surroundings formed part of a side that would leave its mark on Blundell Park.
George Kerr’s side were gearing up for Division Three football, following a second place finish in Division Four the previous year. Promotion always brings new challenges, but Kerr’s side went into it with a core of young players who had grown up together, close to Blundell Park.
Kevin and David Moore were born in Grimsby 20 months apart, both would go on to establish themselves in the Mariners’ first team. Kevin arrived at Blundell Park in 1976, with David following through the club’s youth system. By 1979/80, the brothers were lining up together in Grimsby’s promotion-winning defence, with Kevin anchoring the centre and David operating at right-back.
Tony Ford made his debut against Walsall in 1975 at the age of 16. A promising young talent, by the 1979/80 season, he had become an established figure in the Mariners’ midfield, making 37 league appearances.
Shaun Mawer represented another part of the same pathway. Named Town’s Young Player of the Year in 1977/78, he had emerged through the club’s ranks and remained part of the first-team squad as Grimsby moved into Division Three. His involvement was limited to three substitute appearances in 1979/80, but his progression alongside the more prominent young players illustrated the opportunities available to locally developed talent at Blundell Park.
Kevin Drinkell also had local roots, he grew up on the Willows estate, less than three miles from Blundell Park. Drinkell progressed through the club’s youth system before making his senior debut as a teenager. He would go on to score 102 goals for the Mariners, with 16 coming during the 1979/80 campaign as he finished as the club’s leading league goalscorer.
Drinkell offered a glimpse into the bond between the younger players: “We were all pals who were young, hungry and worked hard for each other.”
Speaking to The Fishy, he also recalled how their relationships had developed over time: “We’d been mates, grew up together and stayed together as a team for the next six to seven years.” Reflecting on their longer-term development, Drinkell added that “we were the nucleus of the team for a number of years and got better every year.”
That development took place alongside a more experienced group. Bobby Mitchell, an ever-present figure during the campaign, later recalled the way the different generations came together: “We could do a job at a certain level, with the young players like the Moore brothers, Tony Ford and Kevin Drinkell, we just came together.”
The local youngsters were central to the sides identity, helping the experienced core reach the next level. Alongside them were players such as Mitchell, Joe Waters and Clive Wigginton, whose experience would no doubt be just as crucial to the sides’ success. It was the combination of that experience and Kerr’s emerging young players that gave the Mariners the balance required to compete at a higher level.
That balance was already visible on the opening day of the Third Division season. Against Exeter City, Kerr selected Kevin and David Moore and Tony Ford alongside experienced figures including Waters and Mitchell. The young players were not just being given the occasional opportunity; they were being fully trusted in a side facing the greater demands of a higher division.
Their involvement became increasingly substantial as the season progressed. Kevin Moore made 41 league appearances, Ford featured 37 times and Drinkell played 33, scoring 16 goals. The numbers demonstrate that several of the locally developed players had become regular members of Kerr’s side, rather than peripheral members of the squad.
What they contributed formed part of a remarkable campaign. Grimsby reached the top of the table at the end of January with a 3-0 victory over Blackpool and lost just once across their final 18 league matches. Three points clear of Blackburn Rovers at the finish, the Mariners secured the Third Division title on the final day with 62 points, completing back-to-back promotions.
The championship was sealed in fitting fashion. Drinkell, the local forward who had watched Town from the Pontoon as a boy, scored a hat-trick in a 4-0 victory over Sheffield United to secure the title. For one of the players who had grown up around the club, the defining moment of the season came with his name at the centre of it.
Tony Ford summed up that feeling best, saying “I think the game when we won the Third Division championship in 1980 would stand out as the best. We beat Sheffield United 4-0 and my good friend Kevin Drinkell scored a hat-trick that day. The euphoria of the day, winning the title was just fantastic.”
The 1979/80 champions were never simply a team of local players. Kerr’s side depended on experience as much as youth, and on the collective rather than any individual group. But the presence of players who had been developed around Blundell Park gave the achievement an identity of its own. A generation that had grown up together had now helped carry their home town from Division Four to Division Two in successive seasons.
UTM
